“Drawing comparisons to films like Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven, THE FREE received widespread critical acclaim upon publication, and received starred reviews from both Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal.

The good news is that the adventures of The Free don’t end with this novel – far from it! The world that Brian has created is too large, and the history of the Free too bloody and tumultuous, to be explored in just a single novel. So we’re very pleased to announce three new novellas that will explore the eventful past of this famous mercenary company, all of which will be published this year.”

So, yes. These novellas are set in the world of my novel The Free, and they’re all stand-alone prequels to that book.

You don’t need to have read The Free to make sense of them – nor, come to that, do you have to read them to make sense of The Free – but they do fill in a little bit of the backstory for some of the main characters in that book, explain how some of them wind up where they do, that kind of thing.

So if you’ve read The Free and would like to know little things like … oh, I don’t know … what was young Yulan’s first big mission, or how did Wren and Kerig meet, or what actually happened when the Free chased slavers into the Empire of Orphans … well, these novellas might be what you’re looking for.

And if you haven’t read The Free, these novellas are for you too. Perfect way to sample the world and the characters without straining your wallet!

The first of them – Corsair – is available now in any and, as far as I know, all places where e-books are sold. Exile, the second, will show up in June; Tyrant, the third, will poke its head up above the battlements in September.